I met with two of the founding members of the 'New Garden Cities Alliance' to discuss a potential collaboration in the form of an Essex 'garden community counter-workshop' - Watch this space.
One of the primary aims of the organisation is to re-define the term 'Garden' city/town/village/community/suburb/settlement, and prevent it from being used as a mere sales term. I would argue the term began falling out of use following Unwin's Hampstead Garden Suburb, and since has exponentially spiralled out of control - there are currently 9 proposals for 'garden communities' in Essex, all of which with very little reference to Howard's original principles. In terms of this project, I'm arguing for far higher densities than the original 12 dwellings per acre [Howard], rather I'm proposing a high-density typology that re-thinks the way we develop rural land.
